Sampaoli has previously spoken of his desire to work with Messi and he is reportedly one of the leading contenders to replace Luis Enrique as Barcelona coach next season.

He has also been mooted as a successor to Edgardo Bauza with the Argentina national team and, ahead of Sevilla's trip to Barcelona on Wednesday, Sampaolijoked he looked forward to even managing his compatriot one day.

"It's always a pleasure to see Messi, seeing the best player in the world who's also Argentinian is always enjoyable," he added.

"When I said I'd manage Messi at some point maybe I meant it'd be at Newell's in Rosario when he goes to play there."

"We won't go into it thinking about challenging for the league - an objective that we were close to at one point but that got away from us - but there's always the simple pride of pulling on the shirt and playing for that regardless of who or where we play.

"No, the idea is play with courage and bravery and not to let recent results reflect on the style or performance of the team.

"What we need most now is conviction and to rebel against a bad run that all teams find themselves in at some point over such a long season, to look forward and be optimistic about everything that's yet to come and turn these results around."